Rachel Zuppo is going to New York City. She is a student at Kutztown U from Philadelphia. She made a zine, or mini comic, about an interesting date she had in Philly’s Chinatown. She will be bringing her mini comic to MoCCAfest 2016.
These two panels are from the opening spread of her All the Tea in Chinatown. Cartoonists known that their opening pages should include a strong establishing shot. Rachel certainly succeeds here.
Kutztown will be among a select group of colleges at MoCCAfest, the indie comic showcase in New York City. Most of the other tables will be small presses, large presses, distributors and independent comics creators. There will be stars there: Cece Bell creator of Newbery Honor winner El Deafo and illustrator/animator Bill Plympton. Sample art by other wonderful exhibitors can be found on the MoCCA’s Tumblr pages.
Kutztown University’s Communication Design Dept pays for the table space at MoCCA. This event is a great opportunity for our students to compare their work with projects from other art programs and meet indy publishers and artists. MoCCA’s general admission is just $5 a day, a bargain for an art fest. Look for Kutztown at Table 114 next to TOON BOOKS.
12 students from our Illustration 2 class are showing their stuff at MoCCA, Sat. April 2 at Metropolitan West, 639 West 46th St, NYC. I’ll be there with their zines on Sunday, too. All of the books were completed across the first eight weeks of this semester.
Yu Wen Sun, who goes by Sue, is Rachel’s buddy. Sue is an exchange student from Tunxi, Huangshan, Anhui, China. She tells us her hometown is smaller than Kutztown. Hard to believe. Her My Friend is A Freak! is a story of of an outsider searching for a friend, and (spoiler alert!) befriending another outsider. Sue got help with the English text from her Philly friend Rachel.
A number of students added stickers as a bonus to their zine. Most of these zines are under $5. Sue’s My Friend is a Freak! is a bargain at $3. This is the third time Kutztown has tabled at MoCCA. This year’s entires are varied, but many have horror and suspense themes.
Meredith Shriner’s A Most Bothersome Bat demonstrates her great potential as a children’s book illustrator. Elaine Knox’s work, below, is cleverly designed with a ghostly overlay printed on transparent paper.
Here is a detail from Kristen DeMelfy’s Inseparable. She manages give great form to her figures even in black and white. Like many of the other stories Inseparable has the potential to be expanded into a longer story.
Hannah Faber’s Kruikje has a fanciful mid-century feel. Her colors are a tad off-register making her digital printout resemble a risograph or linocut. We have lots more artwork to see, but here below is a page from Katelynn Chamber’s Self Talk, a more serious project about the issue of body image.
Hope to see old friends at MoCCA. I am always inspired by the work of young illustrators from great schools like FIT, or SAW, or CCS and Kutztown University. Thanks to Lindsay Trzaska for designing our banners. If you make it to MoCCA you will find us at table 114.
I will share photos and more student work from MoCCA next week.
Illustration Concentration 